Press Release Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Strategy: Global Prolife Alliance Calls on ECOWAS to Declare West Africa a Nuclear Free Zone.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press:

 

The Council on National Policies of the Global Prolife Alliance (GPA) issued a statement at the end of council expert consultations requesting that the governments of West Africa declare a nuclear free zone across the region in a Resolution No.244. The GPA Council also adopted a Resolution No.245 on Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Strategy, to request that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) place a moratorium on new construction of nuclear power plants in all member states with existing high-level or potential threats of terrorism to nuclear facility sites.  The proposal in some countries like Nigeria to build nuclear power plants could complicate the current complex security situation across the West African region. A situation could be envisaged where terrorist organizations like Boko Haram and ISIL could capture the nuclear plants and use it as a weapon of mass destruction by blowing up its core reactors. One could imagine if Syria or Iraq had functional nuclear power plants before the ISIL invasion! Could ISIL not have held it in ransom, and ask the coalition to withdraw or they blow it up? The entire Middle East region could be in grave nuclear jeopardy! Can Nigeria protect adequately any nuclear facility from terrorist attacks? Despite considerable technological advances, securing nuclear plants from even operational accidents has been a major challenge in the most advanced countries including Russia, United States, Japan and European Union. Sixty major nuclear accidents have occurred in the most advanced countries since Chernobyl in Russia in 1986. Nigeria has considerable challenges maintaining security within its borders posed by threats from Boko Haram terrorists. An attack on a nuclear facility in Nigeria could jeopardize the entire West African region. Nigeria has not been able to even secure pipelines in the oil-rich regions of South-South, Nigeria. Experts say that, at cost of $20 billion USD for building the nuclear plants ,Nigeria could build three Kamuthi Solar field in India, the world’s largest, with a capacity of 640 MW each  (total=1920 MW), completed in eight months.  Nigeria could create a sustainable solar industry for the future for the unemployed youths of Nigeria. There is no rationale to create a potential environmental nuclear hazard for millions of people in the region, which terrorists could exploit to threaten the peace. Even the threat of a launch of an attack could cause evacuation of people living within 150 km radius of the nuclear power station, a space occupied by at least three states in Nigeria. Evacuation to where? The GPA calls on all countries in the region to cancel all plans to build nuclear power plants and implement strategies for sustainable renewable energy as committed to in the Paris Accord. The cash strapped countries of the ECOWAS cannot even afford to maintain the nuclear facilities in the near future anyway. The GPA calls for a special ECOWAS Summit to draft a protocol for a Nuclear Free Environment in the region.    

 

Signed:

Academician Prof Dr Philip C. Njemanze MD. Chairman, Council on National Policies, Global Prolife Alliance (GPA).   27.11.2017.